Inebriates Act 1898

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved


Inebriates Act, 1898

(61 & 62 Vict.) CHAPTER 60.

An Act to provide for the treatment of Habitual Inebriates.

[12th August 1898]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Criminal Habitual Drunkards.

Criminal Habitual Drunkards.

S-1 Detention of habitual drunkard guilty of crime.

1 Detention of habitual drunkard guilty of crime.

(1)1.—(1.) Where a person is convicted on indictment of an offence punishable with imprisonment or penal servitude, if the court is satisfied from the evidence that the offence was committed under the influence of drink or that drunkenness was a contributing cause of the offence, and the offender admits that he is or is found by the jury to be a habitual drunkard, the court may, in addition to or in substitution for any other sentence, order that he be detained for a term not exceeding three years in any State inebriate reformatory or in any certified inebriate reformatory the managers of which are willing to receive him.

(2) (2.) In any indictment under this section it shall be sufficient, after charging the offence, to state that the offender is a habitual drunkard. In the proceedings on the indictment the offender shall, in the first instance, be arraigned on so much only of the indictment as charges the said offence, and, if on arraignment he pleads guilty or is found guilty by the jury, the jury shall, unless the offender admits that he is a habitual drunkard, be charged to inquire whether he is a habitual drunkard, and in that case it shall not be necessary to swear the jury again.

Provided that, unless evidence that the offender is a habitual drunkard has been given before he is committed for trial, not less than seven days' notice shall be given to the proper officer of the court by which the offender is to be tried and to the offender that it is intended to charge habitual drunkenness in the indictment.

S-2 Detention of habitual drunkard four times convicted of drunkenness.

2 Detention of habitual drunkard four times convicted of drunkenness.

(1)2.—(1.) Any person who commits any of the offences mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, and who within the twelve months preceding the date of the commission of the offence has been convicted summarily at least three times of any offences so mentioned, and who is a habitual drunkard, shall be liable upon conviction on indictment, or if he consents to be dealt with summarily on summary conviction, to be detained for a term not exceeding three years in any certified inebriate reformatory the managers of which are willing to receive him.

(2) (2.) The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 , shall apply to proceedings under this section as if the offence charged were specified in the second column of the First Schedule to the said Act.

Inebriate Reformatories.

Inebriate Reformatories.

S-3 Power of Secretary of State to establish inebriate reformatories.

3 Power of Secretary of State to establish inebriate reformatories.

3. The Secretary of State may establish inebriate reformatories (in this Act called State inebriate reformatories), and for that purpose may, with the approval of the Treasury, acquire any land, or erect or acquire any building, or appropriate the whole or any part of any building vested in him or under his control, and any expenses incurred under this section shall be paid out of moneys provided by Parliament.

S-4 Regulations for State inebriate reformatories.

4 Regulations for State inebriate reformatories.

4. The Secretary of State may make regulations for the rule and management of any State inebriate reformatory, and for the classification, treatment, employment, and control of persons sent to it in pursuance of this Act, and for their absence under licence; and, subject to any adaptations, alterations, and exceptions made by such regulations, the Prison Acts, 1865 to 1898 (including the penal provisions thereof), shall apply in the case of every such reformatory as if it were a prison. Provided that no regulation shall authorise the infliction of corporal punishment in any State inebriate reformatory.

S-5 Establishment of certified inebriate reformatories.

5 Establishment of certified inebriate reformatories.

(1)5.—(1.) The Secretary of State, on the application of the council of any county or borough or of any persons desirous of establishing an inebriate reformatory, may, if satisfied as to the fitness of the reformatory and of the persons proposing to maintain it, certify it as an inebriate reformatory, and thereupon, while the certificate is in force, the reformatory shall be a certified inebriate reformatory within the meaning of this Act.

(2) (2.) The Secretary of State may make regulations prescribing the conditions on which certificates under this section are to be granted and held, and the circumstances under which they may be withdrawn or resigned.

S-6 Regulations as to certified inebriate reformatories.

6 Regulations as to certified inebriate reformatories.

6. The Secretary of State may make regulations as to—

a ) the establishment, management, maintenance, and inspection of certified inebriate reformatories
b ) the classification, treatment, employment, and control of the inmates of certified inebriate reformatories, and the application of their earnings
c ) the transfer of such inmates from one certified inebriate reformatory to another, their absence under licence, and their discharge; and
d ) the transfer of inmates from a State inebriate reformatory to a certified inebriate reformatory, or in special cases from a certified inebriate reformatory to a State inebriate reformatory

and may thereby impose a fine not exceeding twenty pounds, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, with or without hard labour, for the breach of any such regulations.

In reckoning the period of detention of any person detained in a certified inebriate reformatory the time during which he is imprisoned under this section shall not be computed.

S-7 Inspectors.

7 Inspectors.

7. The Secretary of State may, with the consent of the Treasury as to number, appoint inspectors of certified inebriate reformatories and assign them such remuneration out of money provided by Parliament as the Treasury may determine.

S-8 Contribution by Treasury.

8 Contribution by Treasury.

8. The Treasury may contribute out of money provided by Parliament such sums and on such conditions as the Secretary of State recommends towards the expenses of the detention of persons in certified inebriate reformatories.

S-9 Contributions by councils of counties and boroughs.

9 Contributions by councils of counties and boroughs.

(1)9.—(1.) The council of any county or borough may contribute such sums, and on such conditions, as they think fit, towards, or may themselves undertake, the establishment or maintenance of a reformatory certified or intended to be certified under this Act, and may defray the whole or any part of the expenses of detention of any person in any certified inebriate reformatory, and two or more councils may combine for any such purpose.

(2) (2.) The council of a borough may borrow for any such purpose in like manner as if it were a purpose for which they are authorised by section one hundred and six of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 , to borrow.

S-10 Expenses of conveyance.

10 Expenses of conveyance.

10. The expense of conveying a person to a certified inebriate reformatory shall be defrayed by the police authority by whom or at whose instance he is conveyed, and shall be deemed part of the current expenses of that police authority.

S-11 Powers of officers and arrest.

11 Powers of officers and arrest.

(1)11.—(1.) Every officer of a certified inebriate reformatory authorised in writing by the managers of the reformatory to take charge of any person ordered to be detained under this Act for the purpose of conveying him to or from the reformatory, or of apprehending and bringing him back to the reformatory in case of his escape or refusal to return, shall, for that purpose and while engaged in that duty, have all the powers, protections and privileges of a constable.

(2) (2.) If any person ordered to be detained in a certified inebriate reformatory escapes therefrom, or from the charge of any person in whose charge he is placed under licence, before the expiration of his period of detention, he may be apprehended without warrant and brought back to the reformatory.

S-12 Power to recover expenses against inebriate's estate.

12 Power to recover expenses against inebriate's estate.

(1)12.—(1.) If it is made to appear to a judge of county courts that any person detained in a State or certified inebriate reformatory has any real or personal property more than sufficient to maintain his family, if any, the judge may make an order for the payment of the expenses incurred in relation to the detention of that person, and the order may be enforced against any property of that person in the same way as a judgment of the county court.

(2) (2.) The order may be made on application—

(a ) in the case of a person detained in a State inebriate...

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